Etymology Via French knout from Russian кнут (knut), from Old East Slavic кнутъ (knutŭ), from Old Norse knútr (“knot in a cord”). Doublet of knot, node, and nodus.
1
A leather scourge (multi-tail whip), in the severe version known as 'great knout' with metal weights on each tongue, notoriously used in imperial Russia.
In Moscow, a Court carbonadoes / His ignorant serfs with the knout; / […] / But Eton has crueller terrors / Than these,—in the Windsor Express.1832 October 27, Winthrop Mackworth Praed, Derwent Coleridge, “Tales out of School. A Dropt Letter from a Lady.”, in The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed, […]. In Two Volumes, 4th edition, volume II, London: E[dward] Moxon, Son & Co., […], published 1874, →OCLC, page 217:
Torture in a public school is as much licensed as the knout in Russia.1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 5, in Vanity Fair:
3 more examples
“I don't suppose a Russian convict under the knout is able to amuse the rest of his gang; and all our men-folk here are gilded convicts.”1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 14:
Spray and then slogging knouts of water hit the windows or lights like snarling disaffected at a mansion of the rich and frivolous.1980, Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers:
The lieutenant gave him twenty strokes of the knout and stuck him in a cage for a few days till the snow was ankle deep.2005, James Meek, The People's Act of Love, Canongate, published 2006, page 193:
Etymology Via French knout from Russian кнут (knut), from Old East Slavic кнутъ (knutŭ), from Old Norse knútr (“knot in a cord”). Doublet of knot, node, and nodus.
1
To flog or beat with a knout.
Different, isn’t it? It’s called kava, by the way. The Fijians make it by knouting some root or other.1992, Will Self, Cock and Bull: